Does anyone have any info or suggestions on video projectors, we are considering one over a projection or plasma tv.

there are some nice projectors out there nowadays. Do your homework, go look at them. I mean, go see them in action. Decide what resolution you want, they are all over the place in their native resolution. Like 914s it's important to see as many different ones as possible in action. Read up on reviews from the home theater sites. Also, alot of these projectors are also in use in rental departments of Audio/Visual companies. See if you have an A/V supplier/rental house in town that also has a sales dept. You might be able to have them demo or even let you take home a projector or two. Be careful, though, they will most likely push what they sell.

I've been around these things since 1989, when the first LCD projector we rented actually used a Kodak EIII slide projector lamp. They've come a long, long, long way.

I actually prefer CRT projectors in rooms with controlled lighting, but they are bigger, heavier and more expensive.

I bought a Mitsubishi 65 inch Diamond Vision projector type High Definition set last fall. It replace the 50 inch Mitsu set we had since 1989 and I hope this one lasts as well. It has HD inputs for a main supply such as the home theater PC I run our digital big dish satellite system through, HD inputs for DVD player and a bunch of others too. Also has Dolby sound and it looks amazing. The only drawback is it weighs 450 pounds and was a bugger to move into the house! It is not quite a sharp as a plasma set but 65 inch plasma sets are pretty pricey! This set was listed at $4999 and I paid $3100 for it as it was a demonstrator set at a local Good Guys. They had three of these and the one I bought was in an area where it had not many hours on it and had the new warranty, etc. It you search the web, you can actually get the owners manuals of most any set you are looking at to see what they can do. My only regret is I should have got a 72 inch, but maybe next time. If you are ever in the Chula Vista CA area, stop by to check it out.

I just purchased a BenQ PB6100 projector and I love it. I have it ceiling mounted and putting out a 104 inch image. It would not be good in a bright, sunny room but in my entertainment room it works great. I'm just projecting on the wall right now with no screen and the image is still pretty nice. I paid $1400 canadian with a $150 mail in rebate that brings the price down to $1250 (approx $950 US) The bulb has a 3000 hour life span which should last me several years. Check some reviews and you will see that it is probably the best bang for the buck out there.

A good starting point for research (and deals) is www.avsforum.com - check out the various hardware and HD areas

Richard

Depends a great deal on your price range.

I picked up a Panasonic AE-200 front projector a few years ago for around $1500 and have been very happy with it. The AE-500 is the current model and has some features I've been thinking about upgrading for.

Some other factors to consider:
How dark can you get the room you will be viewing in?
What type of material will you be viewing?

There is a very good resource at http://www.avsforum.com/ particularly in the Digital Projectors < $3500 Forum

Good luck and once you have one you will never look back.

-datapace

Here are the stats for the PB6100. Also check out the user reviews on this page.

Projector Central

I found Projector Central to be very useful for comparing projectors and getting information on different technical items. I bought mine from TigerDirect and was really happy with their service.

I have had really good luck with the InFocus products... Four years of salesfolks dropping and forgeting they were on for days... pretty good record, only one out of five had any trouble. InFocus Be SURE to scope out the life, LUX and watts of the bulbs... they range from $300 for a 150watt on up!

Le Mans looks really kewl when you shoot it on your neighbors' house! You will need a better sound system too!

I've been thinking of getting one too.

My boss bought an inexpensive Infocus ($1000) projector and it looked fantastic. I assume it has 800x600 resolution.

The next price jump gets you 1024x768 resolution. Does it make a huge difference?

Personally I think that a video projector is a great way to go for a home theater. You can get a much bigger picture than the TV and they last longer. A plasma tv will go out at some point and need to be refilled with plasma. If I remember correctly a plasma tv will last something like 5 -10 yrs before needing a refil and that is about the cost of the initial purchase price of the TV to have done. The important thing about video projectors is like seanery said, to go look at them. There can be a very big difference in sharpness from one brand to the other, even if the projectors are the exact same price. I have many times had to run 2 projectors of different brand side by side projecting the same image and was shocked at the difference in picture. Check um out. In my personal experience, I find that the low dollar projectors biggest problem is brightness. If you are projecting it in a room that is totally dark your good to go, Once you bring up the lights however you will find it to be very hard to watch. So that depends on your application. If you are gona be watching strictly movies in a theater style enviroment than you do not need to shell out a lot of dough to get a good quality projector. If you are going to be using it as a Tv to watch everyday, in any lighting condition, than you are looking at a large investment. Another important thing in projection is the actual surface which you are projecting onto. A White wall in your living room is not going to look nearly as good as an actual projector screen. The screen will greatly improve the chrispness. Most people over look this but a good screen can help a projector imensley. So go check them out and price them out, but I would not be supprised if you could get the job done for under $2500.
Eric

This is what i do for a living (Home Theater). The Dwin is a great unit (about 10,000) or the Yamaha LPX550 is great for about $5500. Email me if you have any questions or need equipment.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I have not found a store that I can view them at, but will keep looking, I have read some things regarding led vs dpl and svga but have not seen the comparison in person.

In this old house (1929), there was no space for a TV room so we made one side of the living room the home theatre.

I decided on the NEC LT2400 for the price/performance ratio. It is a DSP projector and is 4:3 ratio which is good because we watch alot of sat TV like F1, etc. The screen is a 100" electric DA-LITE.

Daytime is watchable but not great. Nightime with a DVD is amazing. I have designed cabinets for the stereo components that fit below the window sill so it doesn't block the view. A matching table will hide the projector. I didn't want the thing hanging down in the middle of the room.

It is really not a setup for watching everyday but rather for once a week movie or racing.

Here is a shot of the room with the screen in the up position..

And in the down position...

Notice in the first view, really hard to tell there is a home theatre in the room, maybe just some speakers near the bar.

dr

We are currently revamping the house, my wife is into high tech she is the one who suggested the projector, all of out living room furniture has been replaced, and a wall for cabinetry and for a screen chosen. The room is well lit so it this may be a consideration although most of the viewing will be in the evening. I am hoping to keep the cost around 2500 or less, How about the Canon units i've seen some for under 2,000.

I have a sanyo PLV-60HT. It is a 16:9 widescreen projector with a 1366x768 native resolution. It puts out about 1200 lumens.

We use it with a 92" Da-lite pulldown screen that I got on ebay for about $150. We paid about $2500 for the projector.

Most people (myself included) get hot under the collar for the electric screens, but everything I have seen is really expensive - you could be talking about another 2 grand for a setup like that, and that does not include installation.

Most modern projectors are capable of displaying HDTV. If so - you will want a DirecTV or Voom HD tuner in all likelyhood. This makes for a very nice setup. (I have the HD-TiVo - which is excellent - except that it died while we were in Vegas getting married :-( )

I recommend getting a 16:9 projector. Basically - it means (in my case) I get 1366x768 for HD and DVD-Widescreen formats. Regular TV gets displayed at 1024x768. If I had a 4:3 projector, I would get HD at about 1024x550 or so by the time it is letterboxed. 550 lines is only slightly better than standard definition, and will not do justice to some of the HD programming.

Wiring: One of the significant challenges with putting up a projector is getting suitable wiring set up. I have run my projector with 5 runs of RG6 quad shield (for S-Video and Component) - I am currently using Muxlab baluns to run the signals over Cat-5. The Cat 5 is easy to pull through walls, but there is a slight ghosting created by the setup, and I also have a pre-image (a ghost to the left) which I have been unable to resolve (it might actually be within the projector too.). I would spend some time researching this. I also have a couple of 50 foot runs of RG6 (5 conductors) if you want to borrow them and test them out.

I am using an Onkyo reciever woth the projector - along with a cheap region-free progressive-scan DVD, and the HD-Tivo - we run all the signals in component apart from a couple of S-video sources (DV-Cam, Computer, Playstation). All in all we are very happy with the setup.

I find all of this very interesting, I wasn't aware of the cabling issues, I have cable tv right now and shouldn't have anymore than 10 or 12 feet from where I plan on installing the projector on the ceiling, and the tuner, and dvd player.